Swiss voters likely to decide on proposed vaccination ban

The president of the Freedom Movement Switzerland poses in front of stacked up boxes containing the more than 125,000 collected signatures before they were handed in to the Federal Chancellery. Keystone/Anthony Anex

A proposal calling for a de-facto ban on mandatory vaccinations has been handed in to the Swiss authorities.

Campaigners on Thursday said they collected more than 125,000 signatures within just over 12 months for a people’s initiative aimed at ensuring the right to prior consent to inoculations.

The group, Freedom Movement SwitzerlandExternal link, said their demand was not limited to jabs against Covid-19, but also applied to “vaccines, chips and other forms of digital information in a human body”, according to the Keystone-SDA news agency.

The group wants to enshrine an article in the country’s constitution stating that consent is mandatory for every violation of a “person’s physical or psychological integrity”.

People who refuse to be vaccinated must not be punished or suffer any social or professional harm, the group says.

Certain groups

Under current law, vaccinations can only be made mandatory by the cantonal or national government for certain groups and in extraordinary situations.

The government and parliament still have to discuss the proposal before a date is set for a nationwide ballot.

Earlier this year, voters had the final say on two occasions about the government’s anti-Covid policy. The legal amendments won clear majorities in ballots in June and November respectively.